AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There’s three of you? Brothers?” Royce had only mentioned Sean.
“Yeah, four boys. Royce has two more brothers, twins, less than a year older than me. He’s the surprise baby, eight years younger than me. Even the three of us couldn’t help.”
“But then his firehouse came through.”
“Yes, they passed the hat and did what we couldn’t. He mention he’s paying back every single penny? Every dollar he doesn’t spend on tattoos goes back to them.” Sean turned back to his sleeping brother. “He hates needles. We were kids, I had to bribe him when he went in to get his shots.”
“Tattoos hurt. I got my first. Do you have any?”
“Nah, I prefer to be less identifiable than a hippie streetlight overcompensating for a bad breakup.”
“I like the tattoos,” Vandy defended Royce. “And his hair.”
Sean ran a hand through his similarly red but much shorter locks. “It’s hard to see my sweet baby brother like this, and I never want him to go through it again… he probably isn’t actually aware you’re here. You can go if you want.”
So much for bonding with Royce’s brother. “You want me to go?”
“Yes, leave. He’s hopped on so much Versed you can go, and he’ll never know you were here. I’ll tell him you took the train back when he didn’t pick you up… I’m giving you permission to walk away.”
“Why would I do that?”
“I saw your face when you came into the exam room. You were scared. I was scared for him. You’ve got to be made of really strong stuff, and I don’t want you to decide three months from now you can’t take it.”
“Not that many firefighters die per year. Isn’t logging or coal mining more dangerous?”
“Do you find that comforting? Does that information make you feel better?” Sean asked her seriously.
“No,” she admitted. “One death is a tragedy. A million are a statistic.”
“I don’t remember that line from Robin Hood. Did Alan Rickman say that in Die Hard?“ Sean must have had the same taste in movies as Royce.
“No, it’s Stalin, master of evil accounting.,” Vandy said.
“There’s got to be better lines than that.”
“Are you trying to scare me away?”
“Royce likes you. You’re probably a good person. But you’ve known each other for what? Three weeks?”
“We know long distance can be hard.”
“Yeah. Ergo, if you’re not really sure about this, it’s better for both of you to quit while you’re ahead. He’ll get over it. The longer this lasts, the harder it will be when you break up.”
“What makes you think we’re going to break up?” Vandy bristled.
“See? How cute. You’re an accounting student who lives in Chicago. And how old are you?”
“I just turned twenty-one.”
“Yeah. And tomorrow you might find something else that’s shiny and leave your tattooed blue collared boyfriend in the dust. Have you even told your parents you’re dating him?”
Now she was getting mad. “Weird. I don’t remember him telling you he was dating me. Our dating is our business and not yours.”
“It is my business because that’s my little brother. You should have seen Casey’s face when I got there. Royce had lost a lot of blood, and Casey skipped telling you what they spent the first part of their night doing. They were picking up pieces of bodies of people who’d jumped out of the building.”
Vandy blanched but wasn’t going to let him push her around. “You think you’re gonna gross out a doctor’s kid? Think again. And I have a big brother too, so I understand family, but don’t take your issues with his ex out on me. I’m in Chicago, not Zimbabwe. I like Royce, he likes me, and maybe we’ll be young and dumb together. If it works out between him and me, it’s up to us and not overprotective, meddling big brothers. Back the hell off.”
Sean stiffened, and Vandy braced for an explosion.
